At the Launch of '50 Not Out' Harimohan Paruvu

There are a lot of people who have experiences that have changed their lives, and that which shared with others, would also if not change, then affect the lives of others in some way. But these people don’t or can’t share their wisdom, for various reasons. Either because they are selfish, and assume people should learn their own lessons, or because they have no idea of how to share these experiences/lessons with a larger audience.

Then there are several people who have learnt a few lessons, mostly insignificant ones, have read one or two inspirational books and feel that they too have it in them to write one such book. Unfortunately, their wisdom seems borrowed and not too convincing either because the writer focuses too much on himself and his ‘wisdom’ which he imparts, often, in a pompous tone. Many of the inspirational books currently on the shelves are written by such people. Not surprisingly such books remain on the shelves in bookstores.

Then there are those who have gone through life taking some hard knocks, learning valuable lessons from something they are passionate about and most importantly, have that great wish to share those lessons with others, especially with those who need it most. They are also fortunate to have it in them the skill to put into words what they exactly want to say, and say it well. Hari falls into this category. Having known Hari for almost two decades I know how passionate and committed he is to cricket, writing, and also to a desire to mould lives. I have been a recipient of some of the lessons he has written about so well in his third book ’50 Not Out’ that was launched on Wednesday.

At the launch at Landmark in Somajiguda were CV Anand, Commissioner of Police, Cyberabad, VVS Laxman, the cricketer, Sumanth, the actor and also Suresh Babu, the film producer, all of them who read out from the book and shared their observations. CV Anand spoke at length about his friendship with Hari and also said how some of the things in Hari’s book can be put into practice by everyone, including cops. Sumanth, in a soft spoken voice read out from the book and some of his remarks had the audience smiling. Personally I liked the short and insightful speech by Suresh Babu. VVS Laxman, the Chief Guest, made some interesting observations about Hari’s game and also the book.

‘50 Not Out’ contains fifty brief chapters each dealing with a quality/trait/habit that one needs to succeed in any endeavour in life. Hari explains the fifty qualities using his own experiences in cricket along with quotes from many famous and successful people. For those really keen to work on these lessons there are helpful tips at the end of each chapter. I sincerely hope ‘50 Not Out’ finds a place in everyone’s bookshelf, and changes lives in some small way as Hari intended.

Sunrise@NecklaceRoad

One thing I wish I could do more often is go to Necklace Road early on Sunday morning and watch the sun rise over the calm waters of Hussain Sagar. I have done it many times in the past and it has never failed to be a magical experience that put me in a different frame of mind. It is something I’ve found to be worth getting up at five in the morning on a Sunday when all you want to do is to get up a little later than your usual time.

The last time I did it was a couple of months ago. Since then for some reason or the other I couldn’t find the time to go to Necklace Road to watch the sunrise. However last Saturday I resolved to go and there I was at Necklace Road much before the sunrise. It was really magical and I felt it can be called a minor soul-cleansing experience because all at once I felt calm and all the negativity inside just went down.

Later, as is my routine, I sat in Adarsh café reading the Sunday papers leisurely for more than an hour. After watching the magical sunrise no headline felt alarming. Life just felt wonderful, at least, until Monday dawned.

FRIDAY DOUBLE POST- POST NO. 1- No chai in Paradise

Sometime after the Bahar restaurant at Begumpet became Paradise restaurant after the takeover by the Paradise people I dropped in there to check out the chai section. I found the tea was as good as that served at the original Paradise Cafe at the Paradise circle. For many people ‘Paradise’ means biryani only and I cannot blame them but for the likes of me it means a good cup of chai and Osmania biscuits/samosas etc. So I was glad the Paradise was spreading out to all corners of Hyderabad. Needless to say I was under the impression that I’d get chai at every outlet of Paradise but turns out it isn’t the case.

Last week I was in Begumpet and dropped in at the Paradise there with the idea of having a quick cup of chai. When the guy at the bakery section told me that chai isn’t on the menu I got a minor shock. I did not want to ask him why it wasn’t being served and other questions I had in mind and just walked out heart filled with disappointment and some kind of resentment with the Paradise people. Don’t the people in Begumpet like to drink chai? It looks like it since this Paradise branch looks all geared up to cater to that crowd that likes to eat biryani with fork and spoon along while swigging Coke and stuff like that. No true biryani lover would ever have anything else other than chai after his favourite dish unless he had a screw loose somewhere in his head. I haven’t checked up if this is the case with the other outlets at Kukatpally and the one near Prasad Imax. Maybe they have realized it isn’t worth serving chai at these places. Whatever their decision it sure filled me with a bit of resentment at the way the Paradise folks treats chai and the people who like to drink it.

Anyway, I soon got over this minor disappointment when I ended up at the famous Red Rose Restaurant at Errum Manzil. This is an unpretentious cafe which offers some good stuff. I had an egg puff, two chota samosas that were fresh, crispy and very tasty. I topped off these with a cup of wonderful chai that washed out the experience I had at the ‘Paradise’ cafe in Begumpet.
As if this is not enough, things have changed at the original ‘Paradise’ cafe at Paradise circle. They still continue to serve tea there but not in cups. Since a couple of months they have been serving chai in Paradise in paper cups. Drinking tea in paper cups isn’t exactly the same as drinking it in proper cups. It makes me feel like taking ‘Paradise’ off my list of favourite chai joints.

Friday Twin Post- The Talk at Oakridge and The Sunday Haul

The Talk at Oakridge

After the presentation at New Delhi to a group of the country’s top meteorological big shots and others earlier in the month, I give another presentation to an entirely different bunch of little people last week. I gave a talk on natural calamities to students of sixth standard at Oakridge International School last Thursday. It was an entirely different experience for me since so far no audience at my talks or presentation had been 10-11 year old school kids.

Normally I have a standard power point presentation that I use at my talks at various places. But since this audience was different I had to modify it accordingly. Usually disaster management is a dry subject and a vast one at that. I had only forty five minutes to finish my talk so I thought it would be better if I told the kids about a natural calamity that is as dramatic as it is devastating. I chose to tell them about cyclones.

The forty five minutes flew by. The kids were so enthusiastic and asked so many questions I found it a bit difficult to answer all of them. There were about twenty five kids and out of them a few were more enthusiastic than the others and kept up a barrage of questions. I felt happy that I had told them something that I knew and I hope they also learnt something from my talk. It was a wonderful experience.

The Sunday Haul

Since I had barred myself from going to Abids on Sunday I stopped at Chikkadpally while returning home from some errand. I found Shashi Deshpande’s ‘That Long Silence’ that I got for thirty five rupees. It had a nice cover and was in good condition. Though I had bought ‘The Binding Vine’ a couple of months ago I haven’t found the time to read it. Someday soon I plan to read these two books since I have not read anything by Shashi Deshpande so far.

Visit to Taj Falaknuma Palace

In the course of my office work I wouldn’t ever expect to visit the Taj Falaknuma Palace but last week I was there on work which was something of a minor miracle. I had been eager to check out the place ever since I read about the TFP in Conde Nast Traveller and seen some of the pictures in it.

There are several places in Hyderabad I haven’t been to due to various reasons. Some of these places are where I cannot afford to go. One such place was Taj Falaknuma Palace where I wouldn’t have any business as a government employee. But there I was driving up to the TFP along with my boss last week. Someone from the Aga Khan Foundation wanted to talk to my boss so I tagged along. I hadn’t expected TFP to take my breath away.

Located on a hillock, up a sweeping a drive, the magnificent palace has a bird’s eye view of the city that you cannot get from anywhere else. The palace itself is regal and the Taj Group has refurbished it so well one cannot but admire it. The CM was to take part in the meeting so I idled until the dignitary arrived watching the cops and others. Every guest there got a royal welcome with men dressed like attendants of yore escorting you up the stairs holding some kind of a mast in their hands. A shower of petals greets the surprised guest as they walk up the steps towards the reception. We did not get it since we weren’t staying there. Anyway, to cut a long story short while I did not exactly have a gala time there I was glad about the view. An added bonus was getting to watch a bevy of beautiful models walk past. Later I learnt from the papers that the next day Sabyasachi Mukherjee was having some kind of show at the TFP.

Sarkari Haleem

There’s mutton haleem, there’s chicken haleem, there’s veg haleem, even fish haleem and now we have government haleem. Considering how popular haleem is and how it is an integral part of life of Hyderabad the government has jumped into the haleem business. Sometime last month I had read that the government, i.e., the Tourism Department was considering going into the haleem business during the month of Ramzan. When the government is involved things are a bit different. Just how different it is depends on who you are and the kind of experience you had in the past.

As for me, it was a pleasant surprise to find that the APTDC had set up a haleem counter within a stone’s thrown away from the Secretariat where I am currently posted. The price was Rs 80 wotj a free Coke. I do not understand why the haleem had to be offered with Coke. Last week I picked up a small container of haleem. Though I said I did want the Coke they put it in the bag and handed it to me. For something of Government made it was pretty tasty, actually, finger licking good, to be honest. But the quantity wasn’t sufficient for two persons.

Anyway, this was my second haleem of the season. I had my first haleem at a place near home. Sometime in the beginning of the month of Ramzan I went along with my kid to Gharonda and tasted the haleem at Gharonda which was quite good though a bit expensive. I am yet to have the Paradise haleem and also one with my friend Raj. Every year, we have haleem together at least once in the season which is how friends in Hyderabad bond. Other times there’s chai and of course, biryani and during Ramzan it is over haleem that friends bond. There’s just a week left for the Ramzan month to end and I have to have one more round of haleem sometime in the next couple of days.

At the Hyd Lit Fest

For the second year running I’ve managed to attend the HLF that seems to be moving further away from the city. The first year the venue was the OU, last year it was Taramati Baradari almost on the outskirts and this year it was MANUU which is miles away from anywhere. This must have been one of the reasons why there were thin crowds at the HLF on the two days I went. Due to work and a major function that I had to attend I missed the first day of HLF and thereby missed Hari in conversation with Anita Nair.

In a session on Saturday in the morning Narendra Luther, the grand old chronicler of Deccan regaled the audience with some interesting anecdotes about the erstwhile rulers of Hyderabad. In another event that followed I got to learn about some fascinating tales about and from the Ramayana from Paula Richman. After lunch I was in a session where Mridula Koshy read from her latest novel ‘Not Only The Things That Have Happened’ that I planned to buy and get it signed by her. However, I couldn’t gather the nerve to approach her so I gave up the idea. Sometime soon I will buy the book and read it since I have liked the stories in her collection ‘If It is Sweet.’ Next event I sat through was about movies and the media where Krishna Devulapally (Ice Boys in Bell Bottoms) was on the panel. His second book ’Rally Days and Disco Nights’ would be out soon and I am looking forward to it since I enjoyed the humor in IBBB.

On Sunday morning giving my Abids trip a miss I went by bus to MANUU and by the time I reached Anvar Ali Khan had already started his conversation with Vinod Mehta. The editor held forth on the media, politicians and others in his inimitable style that drew a lot of chuckles and also applause. Then there was the discussion on media after lunch where Dinesh D’Souza, Gunjan Veda and Aarthi Ramchandran talked about Bharat/India and whether there really was any such differentiation. They were all creative people, articulate and very inspiring except for two writers that I won’t name here who were very pushy and sort of off-putting with their screechy and shrill talk.


On the whole it was an enjoyable event and made me think of going to Chennai for the Lit for Life event sometime in the third week of February.

Friday Triple Post - III: The Sunrise Effect

In Hyderabad there are very few scenic spots that one feels like coming to often. One such spot is the Necklace Road skirting the Hussain Sagar Lake. It offers a nice view of the vast lake and is a favorite spot. However, it is overcrowded in the evenings with families, couples and other people who litter the place with trash. The only time to enjoy the lakefront spot is early in the morning when it is quiet and uncrowded. The best thing to do there is to sit still and watch the sunrise in complete tranquility. It is one thing I have been doing quite regularly since the past few years but of late I have missed going there due to work. My last visit to Necklace Road to watch the sunrise was sometime in March this year. The Sunday before last Sunday I decided I’d go and enjoy the solitude of the dawn but it wasn’t to be so.

Usually, so early in the morning there won’t be a soul around on Necklace Road save for an occasional person out walking or exercising which wouldn’t distract me or break the spell. But on the Sunday morning I went there were many people around even before the sun had risen. There was a group of four young men and a girl hanging around a metal and wooden platform on the edge of the lake. From the cameras they carried it was obvious they too had come to catch the sunrise. But instead of soaking in the silence they chattered endlessly which was quite irritating. I waited until the sun rose, took a few snaps and left for the second leg of the morning’s outing.

At Adarsh I settled down with the Sunday papers and here too there was a crowd of eight young men who came on bikes. They sat at two tables and talked loudly, breaking into guffaws and teasing one another. No amount of social networking on the internet would build friendships like these built on such gathering of friends at cafes, lakefronts at odd times.

Friday Double Post-2 :Incident at The Marigold

Not more than a couple of weeks have passed since I wrote here about the newest hotel in Hyderabad- the Marigold- which itself opened not less than a month ago. Such is my luck that though it isn’t a whole month yet since The Marigold opened its doors I’ve already had the chance to be there last Friday. I haven’t had a similar chance when the Park Hyatt and Vivanta opened but with Marigold I seem to have better luck. Coming as it was just when I reached a significant milestone the chance to visit Margold was a welcome change.

Anyway, it was office work and not fate, and certainly not hunger, that took me to Marigold. Last Friday we had a top official from Delhi who booked himself at the Marigold as I later found out. Usually when people from Delhi visit Hyderabad it is one of the Government Guest Houses where they are put up. So when I learnt that this official was in Marigold I had filled with a certain nervousness for more than one reason.

It isn’t that I get nervous at the prospect of dropping in at such fancy hotels but the thing is there are certain requirements one has to fulfil before one even thinks of going to such places. First thing is that it is always better to drive to such places in a car. Secondly one doesn’t drop in at such high end hotels (even if one isn’t planning to eat there and even if it is just to look up someone) without at least a wad of currency in the wallet. Thirdly, one doesn’t simply pass through the lobby without at least wearing matching socks even if one isn’t wearing a suit. Luckily last Friday was one such day I was better dressed than usual. Actually you could have mistaken me for a corporate honcho except I wasn’t wearing a suit and a tie. So, out of three requirements I had fulfilled two- car and clothes - but I still felt nervous. The thing is, I had forgotten my wallet at home which is something that rarely happens to me.



Like any other sensible guy I too check if I’ve got my pen, my wallet, my mobile, my hanky with me every morning before I step out of the house. Last Friday though I had all the other items on my person I did not realize that I was forgetting my wallet. It was only later that I learnt that I had reached office sans wallet in the back pocket. At that time I did not know that later in the day I was destined to visit Marigold so I did not mind going through the day at the office without a paisa in my pocket. But when I was told I was to visit Marigold in the evening I became extremely nervous.

On Friday sometime around half past six I reached Marigold first in order to wait for my boss who was to come a little later. The first thing I liked about Marigold was that it was set deep inside a large compound. However, from the front it did not look like it had 181 rooms. As soon as I entered the lobby somebody dressed in black floated in my direction. It was a thin lady dressed in a black coat like thing that almost reached the ankle which seems to be the latest fashion in the top end hotels. She had a nice smile on her face, which is another thing I like about the hospitality industry: they always smile at you even if you aren’t dressed like John Travolta. I wondered if she would smile at me like that if she knew I was a temporarily penniless government guy. When I told her I had come to meet a guest she asked me which room he was staying. I had not remembered to ask my boss who it was we were supposed to meet so I waited until he came a little later. After he told me the name of the official we were supposed to meet I grew more jittery.

It so happens with these Delhi guys (officials especially) that they think just because they are in the Capital they are the cat’s whiskers. Last month I had a run in with a Delhi guy who was quite high in the pecking order. He had called me to ask for the arrangements to be made for someone who was visiting Hyderabad. If it was him who was visiting Hyderabad I would have taken care he got the right accommodation and arranged for transport but it was his son who was coming here on personal work. The son was not some school kid who had to be shown how to do things but a grown up and a surgeon to boot, and the Delhi guy was calling me up every other day to ask what arrangements I had made for his precious son’s stay at Hyderabad. We are obliged to do the expected for government officials and not their families especially when they are on personal work so with that attitude I took it rather casually. The outcome was that he was pretty riled up with me though ultimately I had made all the arrangements he wanted. I had wondered then how this guy could be in person because he was an ex-Army person and sounded pretty gruff and senior citizen-like. I did not realize I would be coming face to face with him so soon and that was what made me jittery. I hoped he wasn't the sort of ex-Army man to around with grenades in his pocket.

What followed was an elaborate affair as the lady personally herself escorted us to the lift and led us to the guest’s room and also knocked on the door on our behalf. Meanwhile my knees had started knocking. What if the guy had come to check me out?

Luckily for me the Delhi guy did not seem to realize who I was even after I asked him how his son’s stay at Hyderabad had been. He was pretty courteous and even offered us tea and cookies. Until then I was wondering where the Pan Asian restaurant was and if I could get to taste something which are the sort of thoughts one has when hungry. The tea was pretty nice and the cookies were so soft and tasty that I decided to have tea and biscuits also the next time I dropped in there for lunch or dinner. After we met the guest there took place another small drama.

When the lady had accompanied us all the way to the guest’s room I had wondered if she thought we were the sort who couldn’t find our way anywhere. I had noticed that she had operated the lift with some kind of a card. To cut a long story short after meeting the guest when we tried to get down in the lift the lift wouldn’t budge an inch. We tried pressing all the buttons and my boss got a bit panicky. I wondered if the lift would move if we put some coins inside a slot. But there was no slot. I thought of asking our guest to call the hotel staff to operate the lift. It would be a little embarrassing but there was no other solution. However, we found the guest himself standing outside his room. He told us sheepishly that he had locked himself out of his room forgetting his smart card inside. Luckily for us one of the hotel staff came to our rescue and ended this hi-tech drama.

A Dose of Calm

There’s nothing more stress busting than spending an hour early in the morning near a lake all alone. Never was the need for a dose of solitude more felt than now what with a busy work schedule playing havoc with my mind and body. I desperately need a vacation somewhere near the sea in a cooler climes but as luck (and my finances) would have it I can never hope to go anywhere other than the Necklace Road for a couple of hours that too early in the morning on a Sunday. It is exactly what I did on Sunday. I was there much before the sunrise, in fact it was so dark I actually had to search for the bench I usually sit on.

Somehow I felt that the magic of my earlier visits had waned or was missing. I wonder if it had something to do with the fact that a major part of the wrought iron railing on the edge of the lake was missing. The whole place seemed to be lacking in upkeep. Then there was the fountain that got switched off at exactly six making a whooshing sound and shattering the calm of the morning. However, the sunrise itself was magical and calmed the nerves. I sat for about an hour trying to get all the major worries out of the mind but not exactly succeeding completely.

There are some places where things are totally different early in the mornings. Irani hotels are such places where one can spend an hour or two poring over the papers in an unhurried atmosphere. After spending an hour or so watching the sunrise by the lake I sat in Adarsh Café going through the Sunday papers while sipping on Irani chai. As usual there is never anything interesting in the papers except the pictures. As usual a couple of the waiters picked up the papers lying on the table and went through the pictures of movie stars. My friend the smoker wasn’t to be seen since a long time. The last I had come to Adarsh so early in the morning was sometime in November or earlier than that. I spent an hour reading the papers and returned home ready to face another month of turmoil.

The Numaish, Another New Eatery in Jubilee Hills and Catching the Legislature Fever

Only a true Hyderabadi can understand the fuss behind the tamasha that is the Numaish. And only a true Hyderabadi and no one else can come out smiling after spending hours gawking inside the Numaish. I’ll bet there’ll be very few Hyderabadis who do not feel like making another trip to the Numaish within days of making one In fact though only Hyderabadis throng the Numaish mostly, one can find people from other places going around curiously with ‘I-Can’t-Believe-This’ expressions on their faces and hurrying out after spending just an hour or less inside.

Anyone claiming themselves to be true Hyderabadis must pass this test- of having been to the Numaish year after year for ten or more continuous years and eagerly awaiting for January every year. I’ve been going to the Numaish ever since I was a small kid. Though we were at that time moving from one town to another in some corner of the State my father made it a point to bring us to Hyderabad around Numaish time every year. The sound of the hand held tin toy making a clicking noise ( I cannot recollect what it was called- phit- phiti?) and playing with the ‘lailappas’ is something that is part of my childhood memories.

The Numaish is a part of the Hyderabadis life wherever they live. One has to visit the Numaish at least once or else life wouldn’t be quite the same until the next year. Only Hyderabadis can go to the Numaish and gawk like it is their first ever visit to the show though they’ve been coming every year. Incidentally, the Numaish is another place where you will never come across even a single soul from Jubilee Hills. I guess they’d rather prefer being dead than be seen at the Numaish eating chikki and gawking at the stuff in the dinky stalls.

Talking of Jubilee Hills folks reminds me of this latest eruption in the restaurant scene there. There’s news of another new restaurant opening in Jubilee Hills. I read on Monday in the papers that ‘Sitara Grand’ has opened on Road No.12 in Jubilee Hills. This hotel is not to be confused with Hotel Sitara which was in the news recently because it caught fire which is something of the sort that usually happens with restaurants this side of the town. Anyway I had written about Sitara Grand long back on this blog. This place is bang on the main road and there are nearly half a dozen other eateries like Ohri’s and such within spitting distance.

The Legislative Fever is on and needless to say I’m part of it. There’ll be posts on it in the coming days.

Another New Eatery in Hyderabad- 'De Thali'

For every ten new eateries that open in Jubilee Hills, one or sometimes half a restaurant seems to be open in this part of the city. Even this one or half restaurant is opened grudgingly as if some they are doing everyone a big favour. Needless to say, this half restaurant doesn’t even come anywhere near the Jubilee Hills swank joints. The new joint that opened up two days ago is once again from the ‘Ohri’s’ stable and the name of the joint is ‘De Thali’. It is located somewhere near Greenlands in Ameerpet where the Jubilee Hills are unlikely to come because of the traffic.

I have no idea of how ‘De Thali’ is but I know about another new hotel that opened last week. I saw the ad announcing the opening of ‘Vivanta’ of the Taj Group in Begumpet. I have passed by this hotel many times but more about it in another post about Begumpet coming up shortly. I read in the ‘Vivanta’ ad about ‘edge of the plate’ dining which had me thinking what it could be. I can understand ‘edge of the table’ but what’s ‘edge of the plate’?? Somebody enlighten me.

Another New Joint in Jubilee Hills

Life has a mysterious way of bringing to one’s attention the very things one is not interested in and trying to avoid. Take for example, my own keen and undying interest in the restaurant scene in the Jubilee Hills/Banjara Hills area. I am actually tired ( and also envious) of reading about new hotels coming up there that I have decided not to blog about it here but it seems something I am destined to do considering not many people are doing it.

In Jubilee Hills there are so many new restaurants coming up so regularly that I won’t be surprised if the Government notifies the entire Jubilee Hills/Banjara Hills area as an SEZ- Special Eating Zone. I have lost count of the number of hotels opening in that locality that I have lost count. Just when I was wondering when the next joint would open came the news that another hotel has just come up in that area which I came to know only recently.

As I said earlier, life has a certain way of bringing things to our attention when we least expect them. So about two weeks ago I attended the Hyderabad Literary Festival hoping to indulge myself in some literary fare. I actually paid five hundred bucks and registered for the event like I had planned to attend for all the three days. After registration I was given a small cloth bag that contained i) a cheap ball point pen ii) a small note book iii) the January 2012 issue of C6 (Channel Six) magazine and iv) the three day program brochure. It was in C6 that I read that Jubilee Hills crowd had another new joint to go to and eat or do whatever they do in such places.

The new restaurant, I read, was ‘Salz’ and located at Road No. 92, Jubilee Hills which was another piece of news to me because I never knew there were so many roads in Jubilee Hills. Some day I plan to undertake some sort of an expedition and spend a lot of time getting acquainted with the locality because, if any place has roads beginning from Road No. 1 to Road No. 92 then it must be worth checking out in detail.

Anyway, yesterday again there was another item about ‘Salz’ in the ‘Metro Plus’ supplement of The Hindu. It is supposed to offer ‘Transcontinental’ cuisine whatever that means. The reviewer had many good things to say about the food there, describing everything in superlatives, which is exactly what one tends to do if one is not paying for all the stuff that one is generously helping oneself to. I say this from experience, honestly.

Even if I began, say starting tomorrow and assuming I can afford it, to have dinner once a week at each and every joint in Jubilee Hills I doubt if I would ever be able to go through all the joints before I retire, which is a good ten years from now. I know there will be at least one person in JH/BH who might have had at least one meal at each of the restaurants in that area and I won’t be surprised if he/she has an appetite bigger than the Jubilee Hills area and is never at home at mealtime.

At the Hyderabad Literary Festival 2012

The second edition of the Hyderabad Literary Festival took place from Monday to Wednesday (16-18 January, 2012) this week at the Taramati Baradari. Ever since I missed attending the first edition of HLF in December 2010 I have been planning to attend it this year. Though I couldn’t go on all three days I was present on the first and last days of the Fest. Since it was an optional holiday for the Government types I availed at and attended the festival. I applied for leave to attend on the last day. Due to work pressures I had to miss the second day which was actually a full day which had a lot of exciting sessions.

Anyway, attending the HLF was like getting hit with a blast of fresh air after spending two days in the company of so many towering literary personalities. I was very excited the day before and planned with Hari to meet up early on Monday morning, have breakfast at Minerva and be at Taramati Baradari right on time for the inaugural session. It went right as planned and we got to the venue on the dot and found the registration had begun. I too registered shelling out five hundred bucks and ticked off the sessions I wanted to attend. After a while the HLF was formally inaugurated by Gulzar, Pavan K. Varma and Chandana Khan, a senior IAS officer in the State Government.

After the inaugural, the first session I attended was ‘Salaam Hyderabad’ in which Hari was a participant along with Meena Alexander, Krishna Shastri Devulapally and Vamsi Juloori. They talked about Hyderabad, their memories of Hyderabad and the city in their novels. It was an interesting discussion but it could have been more interesting if it had been allowed to go a bit longer and if the moderator had been someone who was actually still living in Hyderabad.

Another session I found interesting was the one with Kiran Nagarkar who made a feisty defence of his novels- ‘Cuckold’ and ‘Ravan and Eddie.’ He brushed off what the critics and opponents of his novels say about them. The next session I sat through was ‘Translating Bharat’ held in the Kohinoor Hall. It was interesting to learn the difficulties translators have to face while translating works in regional languages into other regional languages and also into English. There was so much I learnt from listening to senior translators and writers like Prof Sachidananda Mohanty, Prof Udaya Narayana Singh, Jeelani Bano and someone young and intelligent like the Gujarati poet and translator Dr Hemang Desai.

Then the other session was the one with Amish Tripathi, Indu Sundaresan and Jaishree Mishra, writers of historical fiction in conversation with Dr T. Vijay Kumar. I found nothing very interesting or new in what they had to say about their books or the process of getting published.

At lunch under a shamiana it was a sight to watch people, especially youngsters, try to get Gulzar’s autograph and also get photographed with him. It gave me an idea and I bought ‘Raavi Paar’, a collection of 27 short stories by Gulzar at the bookstore outside. I had to wait a long time to get his signature on the book but I was glad I did it. Though I had planned to read Srilal Shukla’s ‘Raag Darbari’ in Hindi this year, I guess ‘Raavi Paar’ could substitute for it. It would be the first book in Hindi that I would read. I had never read anything longer than a poem in Hindi. Reading Hindi would be more difficult for me than reading Telugu since I read Telugu newspapers and occasional official stuff.

Apart from Hari, there were a few other book loving friends of mine. There was Srinath and also Rasana. I got to meet the Devulapalli couple- Krishna Shastri Devulapally and his wife, Chitra. Devulapalli is the author of ‘Ice Boys in Bell Bottoms’ whose launch I had attended a couple of months ago. There were other familiar faces- there was Sridala Swamy, Amita Talwar, Shankar Melkote and others but not many regulars who normally turn up at book launches and other literary events.

Anyway, it was an interesting first day though I did not stay till the end of the day for Pavan Varma’s book launch. I stayed back for the awards session where the renowned poet Adil Jussawala gave away the Muse India prizes to three young poets- Anindita Sen Gupta, Semeen Ali and Amrita Nair.

I tried to think of some excuses to attend the second day also but I couldn’t take the day off. On the last and final day too I teamed up with Hari and got to the venue by ten in the morning. We sat in the session with Suniti Namjoshi. I was not aware that she was in the IAS before she left it. It was an interesting and illuminating talk by her that made me decide to read at least one book by her. Unfortunately, Mark Tully had not come and I could only catch the second part of the session titled ‘Adapting to India’. It was followed by a reading of fiction by K.Srilata, Priti Aisola, Swati Chawla, Sagarika Chakraborty and Sudha Balagopal. It was interesting to listen to different voices taking us into different landscapes and stories. Two of the writers I knew, K.Srilata read out passages from her latest fiction work ‘A Table for Four’ and Priti Aisola read out from her third book in the making.

The venue was teeming with excited school children who had come to participate in a creative writing event. However, there was sparse attendance at other events especially in the sessions in Urdu and Hindi later in the afternoon. After lunch I sat in a session where four Urdu writers- read out ‘nazms’ and ‘shairi’. This was one of the most interesting sessions I had attended and I wish I could have stayed back for the ‘Mushaira’ that was slated after tea. But we reluctantly left at three in the afternoon mind filled with all that we had sat through.


It was a fine show put up by the Muse India team comprising of GSP Rao, Dr. T. Vijaya Kumar and others. They deserve to be congratulated for the successful conduct of the event despite things being what they are in Hyderabad.

Food and the Hyderabadi

Sometimes when I am on the road in Hyderabad, stuck in a traffic jam, fuming inside as I watch all the stupid drivers around me, I wonder why we haven’t yet lost our mental balance and started beating up each other on the heads. The answer came the other day when I was driving past an Irani joint. I then had a ‘Zen’ moment and the following realization: Were it not for Irani chai and biryani more than half the Hyderabadis would have been raving lunatics by now. It may sound like an exaggeration but I am sure these foods and beverages typical of Hyderabad play a role in helping us maintaining our sanity.

It is quite evident how profoundly chai and biryani affects Hyderabadis. Ask anyone who’s just had a cup of chai or had biryani either for lunch or dinner how they feel and you will get the answer and a lot more. Even just watching the dreamy expressions on the faces of those coming out of Irani hotels will give a clue as to their state of mind. It is quite impossible to pick up a fight with anyone coming out Irani joints in Hyderabad. On the other hand they will endeavour to calm you down with their friendliness and their almost saintly advice or a short couplet on the thing troubling you whether it is a parking problem or anything else.

Biryani and Irani chai are what makes the Hyderabadis what they are. That being so, Hyderabadis will do anything for biryani and chai. But the problem is that no self respecting Hyderabadi will agree to let you pay for his biryani or chai if you happen to be an outsider. He will insist on paying it himself unless he happens to be someone from Jubilee Hills. Anyway, on the rare occasion when you are lucky enough to be treating a Hyderabadi to biryani, be prepared. A Hyderabadi thus fed will express his undying gratitude to you all his life. He will not forget you so easily.

In fact if you want to get anything done by a Hyderabadi the trick is to treat him to biryani or chai. He will do anything you ask him, even jump into the Hussain Sagar if you so much as give him a hint. But if you happen to be one of those rare birds who can’t stand the smell of biryani or the taste of Irani chai and say so in the presence of a Hyderabadi then you’ve had it. He won’t argue with you or shout at you like residents of other cities because he is too refined. He has other ways of expressing his displeasure. He will simply get on the road and then drive you crazy.

Hyderabad Happenings

Yet Another Eatery

With so much happening, especially on the food side, I sometimes wish I could relocate to Jubilee Hills/Banjara Hills. If I’d been as interested in eating as I am in reading then maybe I would have done that long ago. Anyway, it isn’t my fault really but another eatery opened last week in Jubilee Hills/Banjara Hills. But I am not going to say much about it or crib too much about it. It isn’t that I am on the look out for such happenings in JH/BH but I have this habit of reading at least two other newspapers everyday other than The Hindu. A couple of days ago I saw an ad in the TOI ad for ‘The Buffet’ that is described in the ad as ‘the newest destination in town’ which incidentally is located in the GVK One Mall (Level 5) in Banjara Hills.

However ‘The Buffet’ doesn’t appear like the sort of fancy the eatery which will have the JH/BH crowd jumping into their fancy cars and rushing to it at the tiniest sign of hunger. The buffet at ‘The Buffet’ costs only Rs 249 which, like I said before, isn’t exactly something that will have the JH/BH crowd salivating. I mean you don’t drive five miles in a Rs 35 lakh Mercedes Benz ( or equivalent set of wheels) to eat a meal that costs less than two hundred and fifty rupees. It simply isn’t in their class though they wouldn’t mind it on those occasions when they are shopping their wallets off in the pricey stores at GVK One.


C6 Metamorphoses

The first city magazine of Hyderabad was Channel Six which until recently came out in a format slightly bigger than a post card. It was the definitive guide for site-seeing, shopping, events in Hyderabad that catered to a lot of visitors to Hyderabad. Many years ago when I was in that phase spouting poetry I won a prize for something I had written. The prize was a meal for two at a place called ‘Once Upon a Time’ but I was too nervous to go. So the prize went unavailed but I still have that issue somewhere that I show to everyone who tells me I cannot write anything, not even poetry.

Last week I happened to be in Landmark where I picked up a copy of something called C6 which I realized was Channel Six in a new avatar. At last count there were more than a dozen city magazines in Hyderabad like WOW Hyderabad, 040 and others which had good production values with glossy paper, colour photographs which C6 wasn’t able to match until now. I feel glad that it has come of age and ready to challenge the others. Amita Talwar is the soul behind C6 and coincidentally there was a big write up about her in The Hindu the other week.

In the November issue of Channel 6 I read an interview of Jyotirmaya Sharma, a regular fixture at literary events. I last saw him at the launch of ‘River of Smoke’ by Amitav Ghosh at The Park. Since he is a writer also I was not surprised to read that he was an ‘obsessive collector’ of fountain pens. So that’s one more high profile fountain pen collector in Hyderabad to talk about.

Hyderabad Happenings

Some times I feel like pitying the Jubilee Hills/ Banjara Hills crowd for some of the travails they go through, especially travails involving food and eating out. I’m amazed how they manage to go through life when there are eating joints sprouting up around them all the time. There are hotels and restaurants opening in their locality with such an unfailing regularity that they hardly have any time to catch their breath.

Not more than three weeks (time taken for an egg to hatch) must have passed since a foodie joint- XPRS- of the Venky’s Group opened in Banjara Hills and now another XPRS branch has popped up in Madhapur, which is, for all purposes, the backyard of Jubilee Hills.

Now anyone of the JH crowd feels that the XPRS in Banjara Hills is too far away or full then they can always go to the Madhapur branch to fill up. One must actually commend Venky’s for being so thoughtful and making things easy for the this crowd. Anyway, I hope Venky’s opens its next XPRS branch this side of the city though it doesn’t matter a bit since we’ve got our own Irani joints and other places.

Talking of food and eating out reminds me of the ad I saw for ‘Nature’s Basket’ where the Jubilee Hills/Banjara Hills crowd can shop for some exotic stuff to take home and eat on the rare occasions whey they are not eating out. I read somewhere that the Godrej Group opened a food store called ‘Nature’s Basket’ somewhere on Road No. 10, Banjara Hills. I read that the store stocks thirty varieties of cheese, cold cuts ( I do not even know what that is) and other such stuff.

Anyway, I don’t grudge them what they eat and probably I too wouldn’t mind eating such stuff provided it is actually edible and provided someone sells it on a bandi.

A Dose of Calm

I have a once-a-month routine of going out to a scenic place early in the morning to watch the sunrise. It was sometime in June that I had been to the Necklace Road to watch the sunrise over the Hussainsagar Lake on a Sunday morning. That was almost six months ago and the cloud of gloom that always seems to hang over my head had grown too large for me to handle. I had not found the time to indulge in this once-a-month routine for months either because I was too busy or the weather was not favorable. Anyway, I had been restless to do it so last Sunday I went to Necklace Road at the crack of dawn to catch some solitude before the rest of the city woke up.

One of the first things I noticed on reaching the lake were the islands, large ones, of the hyacinth that covered most of the lake. I don’t say the water of Hussainsagar is clean but at least it doesn’t have scum floating on the surface all the time. But this Sunday there was enough vegetation on top to call it a marsh. The other thing was that most of the metal railing skirting the lake’s edge at the place where I usually sit was missing. The last time I had seen it but only a small portion was missing but this time the gap was too big to be ignored. Then there were the fountains shooting up thick jets of water into the air. The water falling back on the surface set off gentle ripples which made the hyacinth islands gently bob up and down.
However, the sight of the sun slowly appearing over the rim of the lake made me forget everything. I sometimes feel that one should watch either the sunrise or sunset everyday in order to feel alive. It was a great sight to watch the sun make its way up into the sky first as a pinkish orb and then gradually turn into a golden disc. I sat there for some time taking in the scene and trying to get rid of some of my gloom. Feeling strangely peaceful in the tranquil setting I decided I’d repeat this routine every month without fail. I’d give anything for that feeling of calm that washes over one at that place so early in the morning.

At Adarsh With the Papers

After a peaceful three quarters of an hour mulling over everything happening or not happening in my life I shifted to Phase II of the routine. I settled down at one of the tables at Adarsh and opened the Sunday papers. I started with the Deccan Chronicle reading the main paper, the Sunday supplement and also the City supplement for almost an hour poring over each and every item. Surprisingly now I do not remember anything I read except a review in the books section. A reviewer called Sunrita Sen had a nice piece on Michael Ondaatje’s ‘The Cat’s Table.’ The book review made me decide to look for ‘The English Patient’ and buy it the next time I find it at a second hand bookstore or at Abids.

The couple of hours spent at Necklace Road watching the sunrise and at Adarsh poring over the papers in the quiet Irani joint left me in such a peaceful state of mind that I did not get irritated when I was asked to come to the office later in the day. It meant that I had to miss my weekly trip to Abids to hunt for books but I did not mind. Abids can wait but the Government cannot. I did not know then that later in the day I’d be meeting a top official who sported two Mont Blanc pens. Actually there were three Mont Blancs but I will write about it in the next post on Friday.

Two More Eateries Open

Unless you live in the Banjara Hills/Jubilee Hills areas you really don’t have any idea of how lucky you are. While elsewhere in the city everyone’s life has been turned upside down with the strike, things seem to be pretty normal for the Banjara Hills/Jubilee Hills crowd, at least as far as opening of new restaurants is concerned.

Somebody actually was considerate enough not to deprive the Hills crowd of their only source of entertainment- gorging on food in a new eatery. Last week yet another new joint opened in Banjara Hills. ‘XPRS’ from the Venky’s Group opened its doors to the hungry hordes bringing much needed joy to this eternally famished crowd. For those who do not know about the Venky’s group these are the chicken feed people now into a lot of poultry related stuff. It is quite natural that they came up with this idea of having a joint serving mostly chicken items. For those who really want to know where exactly ‘XPRS’ is located, it is in MS Towers on Road No. 1, Banjara Hills.

Even before I could fully recover from the news about the opening of ‘XPRS’ came the news of the opening of yet another new eating joint in Hyderabad. The thing is no one has any idea where it is located. One would have thought that ‘The Hindu’ newspaper trains its reporters properly but whoever filed the report in ‘Downtown’ supplement about the opening of ‘Jalpaan’ forgot a basic thing. Nowhere in the report was it mentioned where ‘Jalpaan’ was located as if the readers have to guess it. It also makes me wonder how the subeditors missed it. Whatever it is, folks, there’s another new vegetarian eatery in Hyderabad you have to search for.

I’m willing to bet that ‘Jalpaan’ is also located in the Banjara/Jubilee Hills area because no matter how crowded it is with countless eateries there’s always space for another new joint there.

Books or Beer?

Like there weren’t enough liquor bars in Hyderabad I saw that a new one has come up at a most unlikely place. It is a place that happens to hold some nice memories for me. I have seen Irani hotels turn into shoe stores, I have seen restaurants turn into readymade cloth stores and I have seen grocery stores make way for hair cutting saloons. But I’ve never seen a bookstore turn into a bar. Who would have thought that where once stood a bookstore, a bar would come up in its place? Not me. I for one did not expect that a bar would come up in place of a bookstore that I often visited in the past. But then, this is Hyderabad where one can expect anything to happen.

Sometime in the early nineties, when the only fashionable (read modern) bookstore was Walden at Begumpet, Gangarams of Bangalore decided to come to Hyderabad. Gangarams opened a branch (maybe its only branch outside Bangalore) in Secunderabad in the basement of a building complex right opposite Garden Restaurant at Clock Tower circle. It was an odd location for a bookstore, for sure, but the store flourished for more than a couple of years. A chance encounter with the owner of the store, Chaturbhuj Gangaram, in the first week of its opening turned into something of a friendship. Chaturbhuj Gangaram was a softspoken person with a terrific knowledge of the book selling business. He told me that he had decided to move to Hyderabad on account of his children’s health problems. When he learnt that I was a copywriter he asked me to do the copy for Gangarams. He was happy with the ads my agency did for him and I in turn was happy with the 20% discount he gave me on my purchases. He told me that the margin on books was 30% which was sort of an eye opener for me. It was in Gangarams that I bought my first Dave Barry title- ‘Dave Barry Goes to Japan.’

However, something went wrong somewhere and the store went into a decline. I had left advertising to join the government. I was posted to a far away and remote place which meant I could visit Hyderabad once in a while. One day I learnt that Chaturbhuj Gangaram had sold away the place and moved to Bangalore. For sometime the store ran under a different name, then closed down and opened again but it wasn’t the same. With competition from Odyssey, Crossword, and other stores this oddly located bookstore did not last long. Nobody seemed to mourn the closing down of the bookstore because in its place, something of great interest to Hyderabadis had come up- a bar and restaurant.

Last week while passing through the Clock Tower square I noticed a board that said ‘Madhushala Bar & Restaurant’ at the same place where once the board of Gangarams stood. From ‘Gangarams Bookstore’ to ‘Madhushala Bar & Restaurant’ hasn’t taken long. It perhaps is a pointer to what the average Hyderabadi likes- books or beer?